Check out Leathercraft, Mckinley or Classic Leather for made in America or look at Palatial or Hooker for Imported.

The best and most comfortable tufted leather sofa will have sinuous wire / no-sag springs construction in seat and back, plus a solid hardwood frame, double doweled and glued. Not a plywood frame with elastic webbing.

I think 8-way hand-tied is better for a fully tufted piece. It tends to retain its shape better over the years equally across the seating surface. Always, a solid wood frame is better than plywood any day of the week. You will pay more but it will last much longer. This type of construction is used for all the manufactures I mentioned above with the exception of Hooker that is lower end.

I dont know if any manufacturers that are able or will place a tufted seat over a coil seat springs, either drop-in seat coils or coils that are hand tied. Its possible to pre-tuft a seat then place this over a set of coil springs. But I would never recommend a pre-tufted seat, maybe arms or backs but not a seat. The buttons are held in by a button twine (string) and must be pulled through= all the way through and tied off under the seat. I dont know of any upholster thats able to pull a needle all the way through the dacron - poly and springs, and try to tie off under the springs. It just never works.

Wellington, I know you specialize in selling leather, but their is a dis-connect between sales and manufacturing in so many ways, one really doesnt understand the other, because it takes years of experience and knowledge to do either. Their very few in anyone who has this type of experience and knowledge in both areas.

Most manufacturers will web a seat that is fully tufted, some will put tufting over no-sage (sinuous) springs. A web seat is too flat and you need that center crown to make a nice tuft that looks well and doesnt let he fold open up, holding the tuft for many years. Thats what a no-sag seat will do and its makes for the best and easiest tuft. If you ever have a opportunity to go through a upholstery plant that is building a tufted seat, I can almost guarantee you it wont be a 8-way hand tied seat. Again, unless the upholstery is applying a seat that is pre-tufted.

I Custom I think you are missing my advice. I never mentioned a pre-tufted seat over a coil seat. I have never heard of such a thing. My recommendations are a true 8-way hand-tied construction. Not all furniture manufactures use twine to tuft, some use metal rods that are inserted then opened to hold the buttons in place. Let me also be clear on our experience within the leather furniture industry. Wellington’s manufactures high end leather furniture in North Carolina and we are also a distributor of many of the most popular leather furniture brands. There is absolutely no disconnect between our sales staff and manufacturing. We have been in the leather business over 35 years and offer many options from 8-way hand tied to sinuous construction. I personally feel you recommended sinuous construction because that is what you use to manufacture.

It has been proven that a true 8-way hand tied seat will ride more even across the sofa and therefore giving your tufted sofa a longer life. We, our entire staff, have full knowledge of the manufacturing end of leather furniture and sales. We really understand value! Not only are we involved daily with our private label line but we visit other manufactures we sell often to stay involved with any new manufacturing techniques or changes. We, without question, understand furniture manufacturing from the bottom up. Our leather knowledge is enormous and just as important as what’s below the seat.

Furniture manufacturing was founded using 8-way hand tied construction. Sinuous was a less expensive alternative introduced to lower the price of a piece. It is my opinion that it all comes down to you get what you pay for. If you look at 8-way hand-tied there is so much more. It’s beefy and able to hold heavier weight and that weight is distributed across the seating surface evenly, unlike sinuous. Doing 8-way hand-tied is much more labor intensive and will cost more but you will get so much more in the end. Leathercraft Furniture is an excellent furniture manufacturer and they offer many chesterfield sofas with and without tufted seats and everything they make is 8-way hand-tied construction.

We sell both, we have high end clients and those that are looking for more of a modest priced leather sofa. Wellington’s is familiar with both construction techniques and both have a place in the marketplace. The original question from the consumer was who would you suggest for a tufted leather sofa? These reasons are why I made my recommendations.

I will attach a few photos of both manufacturing techniques for the viewers to look at and decide what will work best for them.

8-Way Hand Tied

You don't mention what your budget is. If you can swing the price, Hancock and Moore are some of the best made sofas of any kind, Bradington Young is good as well.

Wellington, Im glad to here your experiences and that you have more knowledge compared to most retailers. And you make some good points and some that are not correct. Example is the link to the Chesterfield sofa. First how to you think they attach the row of buttons thats along the front edge of the seat, thats the first row just above the top seat border?

I direct you to your site here:

http://www.wellingtonsleather.com/furniture-catalog/sofas-a-loveseats/ball-in-claw-leather-sofa-detail.html

I can just about guarantee that this sofa does not have coil spring 8-way hand tied seat. Thus not every sofa has 8-way tied spring coil seating.

You mentioned using metal rods instead of twine. Metal rods is not exactly the correct terminology, its metal prong buttons and when a manufacturer (McKinley Leather is one and a number of others) that pre-tuffs; they either use the metal prong buttons or a pre-tied twine in a loop to a length that matches the thickness of the poly and using a slited plastic washer to hook and hold in the button. You said you never heard of "pre-tufting a seat. Pre-tufting is where they glue a piece of FLW or propex to the bottom of the foam that is pre-bored for tufting. Then someone, not an upholster, lays on the material (fabric/leather) where the position of the buttons is already marked by the cutter. This person then locates this mark on the material, takes a prong metal button and pushes the button through the material, through the hole in the foam (this hole must align with the correct mark on the material, through the FLW and bends over the prongs to secure the button into the foam near the bottom, doing all the buttons this way is how you make a pre-tufted seat. This person also folds over each pleat to finish up. Then all the upholster has to do is place it over the springs and staples down along the edges. Saves quit a bit of time and labor costs. This is how most major upholstery manufacturers do their button tufting.

As far as how good 8-way tied spring coil seating is, its only as good as they the manufacturer makes it. Please know that the springs are held together with twine. Twine being a string. String can break. It breaks much easier than metal. Thats just the laws of physics. I have seen 100 times more often repairs done on 8-way tied spring coils that are being reupholstered than repairs done on no-sag springs. No-sag springs that are 8 to 8.5 gauge will not ever break or sag. Thats been tested by many of furniture labs. The issue with no-sag springs is how their fastened and what their fastened to. I have seen many times where no-sag springs have either pulled loose from the frame or the frame that holds the no-sag spring is broken. But its never the spring itself.

Their is no better seating than a 8-way hand tied coil seating with a spring-edge front. Its the most comfortable, evenly support across the seat and will go a long ways in helping seat cushions hold their front edge shape and increase their life.

The problem is very few manufacturers still make a spring-edge front any more. To make a spring-edge front requires at least 3 times longer than a just tying the springs directly to the top edge of all the seat rails. The image you show is close to being correctly tied. The twine should be knot tied at every point, its not in the image, its just every other point on the spring is knot tied. Now they do drop down on the last ring of the coils along the outside edge, thats good. Also should never be less than 4 rows deep and have a slight crown in the center. And this is where now so many upholstery manufacturers, in their spring-up department have gotten away from tying correctly, the way it should be done. The tying it the quickest and easiest way possible, just so they can use the term "8-way hand tied coil seating ". In a nutshell your sitting on the string/twine and not the springs. A seat thats flat with no ride, meaning its so firm that it offers little comfort, so your just sitting on the cushions and the twine, until the twine finally gives out and breaks. My point is don't always buy into the 8-way hand tied coil seat advertising as thats all it is: advertising.

Now my case in point for a button tufted seat using no-sag springs. The fabric, buttons with the twine, dacron fiber, poly (foam) and springs should move together as one unit. TOP TO BOTTOM. And that won't happen if you try to button tuft a hand tied coil spring seat. Because the coil springs at the bottom do not move. And thats where you tie off the buttons also, at the bottom, unless of course its a pre-tufted seat. I strongly suggest that you connect with the upholster on this and come and see him actually build a tufted seat. Maybe take some photos and post them here.

Yes everything must be black and white!

Unless you have spent over 35 years working and managing upholstery engineering, design and development for number of companies including some you mentioned about, it would be a difficult to understand some of the finer points I was trying to make.

But, I believe is very important for most consumers to know that they are not being mislead by false information.